iPoker Pushing Skins into Banning Winning Players

[pokeraddict]

While using the excuse of trying to prevent illegal rakeback iPoker is implementing a new system starting in January. First they are going to change the terms where players must contribute to the pot to earn points that go towards VIP. This is disturbing because players work monthly to gain a higher tier after many good months, now that will be made more difficult in md stride basically changing the terms in the middle of the promotion. That is far from the worst of it.

iPoker is going to fine skins that bring in winning players. If a skin pays out more than it takes in they will have to pay a fine to iPoker. A few skins, the latest being Victor Chandler, are banning many of their winning players so they will not be fined. This is repulsive. Any poker room that bans winning players should be immediately blacklisted and so should the network that condones it. There should be no thought about this. What is their goal? There are going to be winners regardless. If you remove the top 10% they either move to other skins or they leave the network and the next 10% of players become winners.

The network is so lost they assume that if they get rid of the good players nobody will ever win and they will not ever have to pay anyone. This needs to get out and players need to let iPoker and Playtech know they will not play on a network where they will get banned for winning.

[Jasminebed]

I thought poker rooms made their money by taking a percentage of the pot, or a flat amount per hand?

I've played very little online poker, but it is something I want to explore next year.

The only reason I could see to ban consistently winning players would be to get more local yokels who would be in a game amongst their peers.

If you mostly lose because you are a poor poker player, you may quit playing. More players equal more hands equal more rake?

Some affiliate agreements do not allow affiliates to offer rakeback deals to their signups, others do. Most poker rooms offer some sort of rakeback to players, usually in the form of free tourneys as I understand it.

Seems to me it is a little like commission salepeople being willing to take a little less commission to close the deal. Doesn't come out of the house edge.

I'll follow this thread with interest.

[Bencuri]

iPoker is going to fine skins that bring in winning players. If a skin pays out more than it takes in they will have to pay a fine to iPoker. A few skins, the latest being Victor Chandler, are banning many of their winning players so they will not be fined.

Where did you find this info?

[winbig]

I can't play there anyways (USA), so it doesn't really matter. But, it does seem as if they're shooting themselves in the foot.

RIP iPoker - it won't be long if they keep this up.

They need to realize that regular poker players will simply move on to other rooms if they can't get any sort of rakeback deal. The iPoker network needs to also realize that there's PLENTY of other networks/poker rooms that offer rakeback and have NO intention of dropping that.

insight: A player that grinds away at small/medium stakes games 50+ hours a week simply cannot beat the rake. More times than not the rake paid in is higher than what they've won from playing. Hence, they want to play at a site that offers rakeback.

I guess one good thing could come of this. Regulars could clean up until they too are banned, once they start banning winning players...the only players that'll be left are the fish.

They'd be better off just to allow rakeback instead of penalizing players.

[winbig]

There's a couple threads going on about this over at 2+2...just search for ipoker and they'll be up near the top.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com

[pokeraddict]

Where did you find this info?

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/28...layers-661606/

That is one of the weekly threads that have been popping up at 2+2. The fines have been discussed already weeks ago and the changing from dealt to contributed can be found here:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/51...ibuted-656348/

[jetset]

As pokeraddict suggests, there has been a lot of discussion over this around the industry recently, with some widely differing views. And it's not just iPoker that is considering it, I believe.

Pokerduck's recent and rather abrupt closure has been attributed to this sort of policy, although that has not been confirmed.

The way I understand it, the operators are keen to 'encourage' their skins to bring in more new player blood (hopefully with a heavy proportion of donks) and are prepared to levy fines on those that have more winners than 'losers'.

I have to confess that I don't see the merit in such a policy, which must have a substantial downside.

[shokaku]

I guess Boss Media treats its skins in a similar way.

So it has to be a real problem in the poker networks. The skins start working more against each other, than against the other poker rooms, that are on the market. Just look a year back, NoiQ got kicked out by IPoker.

Of cause banning winning players will be no solution.

[pokeraddict]

I guess Boss Media treats its skins in a similar way.

So it has to be a real problem in the poker networks. The skins start working more against each other, than against the other poker rooms, that are on the market. Just look a year back, NoiQ got kicked out by IPoker.

Of cause banning winning players will be no solution.

The bold is likely more the problem than the solution. My guess is this is where the issues all started....

[deucebag]

iPoker is going to fine skins that bring in winning players. If a skin pays out more than it takes in they will have to pay a fine to iPoker.

This is nothing new, it has been in place for some time. Smaller sites started banning their biggest winners many months ago, if not a year.